Page:The Wreck.djvu/48

This page needs to be proofread.

CHAPTER XIII

KAMaLA'S school would be breaking up at an early date but Ramesh had arranged with the head- mistress that she should remain there during the holidays.

On the morning after his talk with Annada Babu he rose early and went for a constitutional, choosing one of the unfrequented roads on the Maidan — Cal- cutta's chief open space. He decided to tell Hemnalini all about Kamala before he married her. Later on he would explain her true situation to Kamala. Thus all possibilities of misunderstanding would be removed. Kamala would find a friend in Hemnalini and would- readily agree to make her home with the young couple. There might be gossip if they lived among their own people so he resolved to migrate to Hazaribagh and practise his profession there.

On returning from his walk Ramesh looked in at Annada Babu's and happened to encounter Hemnalini on the stairs. In ordinary circumstances such a meet- ing would have been the signal for a friendly conver- sation but this time Hemnalini blushed — a ghost of a smile like the first glimmering of dawn illumined her countenance — and hurried away with downcast eyes.

Ramesh returned to his rooms and began to thump out on the harmonium the tune that Hemnalini had taught him, — but one cannot play the same tune all day, so by-and-by he turned to a book of poetry; but no poetry, he felt, could rise to the heights that his love had scaled. 

Hemnalini too went about that morning treading on

44

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.